Light goes out on St. Simons

Beacon dark for the first time since WWII

Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009

By CAROL HAWKINS

ST. SIMONS ISLAND- Every week, Jeff Cole climbs 129 cast-iron steps to the top of the St. Simons lighthouse to service the Fresnel lens that directs a beam of light across the deepwater St. Simons Island bar channel and 23 miles out to sea.

There he and three other volunteers from the Coast Guard Auxiliary step inside and polish the 9-foot lens, check to see if the active or backup bulbs need replacing and ensure the gears that turn the lamp still work properly. But after last Sunday, he's not so sure how the job's going to go.

That's because at 8:30 p.m., the light that had guided thousands of ships, was turned off to accommodate a four-month restoration of the brick and iron structure.

It's the first time since World War II the light has been dark.

The Coast Guard has installed a temporary light to guide ships during the outage.

"It's something we do for lighthouses from time to time. The lens will be encapsulated to protect it from the construction work going on around it," said Rob Lehmann, the officer in charge of the Coast Guard's Jacksonville Aids to Navigation team.

Lehmann's unit cares for navigation aids, such as lights, buoys and channel markers, from St. Catherine's Sound to New Smyrna Beach an area that includes three operational lighthouses.

At St. Simons, Lehmann's team has mounted a 14-inch light on the walkway rail just below the main light and aimed its beam toward the channel.

The flashing light is the same as those used for airports and will be seen for 20 miles, he said.

While the temporary light maintains a watch, the lighthouse will get a facelift under the direction of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. The group manages the lighthouse, museum and surrounding grounds.

Bricks will be cleaned and mortar repaired. Windows will be re-caulked, copper and iron structures cleaned of rust and corrosion and primed. Then it all will be painted. But don't expect the color to change.

"Oh my gosh, no," said historical society Executive Director Pat Morris. "This lighthouse is a day marker. It's how people tell one lighthouse from another, so a mariner knows where he is along the coast during the day."

St. Simons' signature color is white with black trim.

The historical society will use $500,000 in federal funds to pay for the restoration and has raised about half of the matching funds needed to secure the grant. One way lighthouse enthusiasts can help with the fundraising drive is by joining the historical society and paying its membership fee, Morris said.

The first lighthouse was 75 feet tall and built in 1810 by James Gould, who also became its first keeper. In those days, the light was produced by oil lamps suspended on iron chains inside a 10-foot-high lantern.

That lighthouse was demolished by retreating Confederate troops during the Civil War so Union soldiers could not use it as a navigational aid.

In 1872, a second lighthouse, 104 feet tall, was built just west of the original. By 1934, electric lamps replaced kerosene, and in 1959, the system was automated with timers.

The last time the St. Simons light house was turned off was for more ominous reasons.

During World War II, German U-boats were active along the East Coast, Morris said. So President Franklin Roosevelt gave an order to turn off all the lighthouses from Maine to Florida.

"Lighthouses illuminated the shorelines and showed the silhouettes of American ships," Morris said. "When the lighthouses went dark, the U-boats couldn't see the ships."